A court in Dhaka on Friday sent a man to jail over a Facebook comment, saying that there was “only a lack of a sniper” in a post featuring a bus carrying Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mehedi Hasan passed the order after showing him arrested in the case, said prosecution department Sub-Inspector (SI) Md Shah Alam.
According to the petition filed by police, three photographs of a bus carrying the prime minister were posted on a Facebook group named ‘The Beauty of Rajshahi’ on 21 October.
The caption questioned why a bus belonging to Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) had been used to transport the prime minister in Rajshahi instead of a red-and-green bulletproof bus.
According to the case statement, a Facebook account named ‘MD Abu Bokor Siddique’ commented on the post, saying, “What a great opportunity it was! There was only a lack of a sniper”.
Police later identified the user of the account and arrested Abu Bokor in the Gholharia Dakshinpara area under Paba Police Station in Rajshahi.
SI Md Manik Hossain of the Detective Branch’s Cyber and Special Crime (North) division filed a case over the matter with Ramna Police Station in Dhaka under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The petition said the accused needed to be questioned in police custody to uncover the details of the case.
It also claimed that an examination of the phone seized from the accused revealed information about objectionable comments posted on various Facebook pages and groups.
